My motherboard just fried itself...

[lozina]

My server started acting funny the past week- seems to be restarting for no reason. I didn't have time to look into it but it seemed it only happened when I left Azurueus overnight- probably just coincidence

Last night though I tried connecting to it and it wasn't responding. Go to the basement to check it out and it's off. Devices hooked up to same power source were lit so it wasn't power problem... I tried turning it on... nothing happened. Power supply dead?

I luckily have a few spares so I tried one- an Antec 350 watt I removed from my newest case. I plug everything in and then while the case was left open and laying on its side I tried powering it up. It turns on for about 5 seconds and then I hear the sound you would associate sparks with- but there were no sparks. Then some smoke started puffing up and the power shut off.

Now I have no idea what to think... the old power supply seemed to be busted- it didn't do anything when I turned the pc on. Now with new PSU it actually turned on for a bit before the mobo fries itself. Could they both have been screwed up at the same time ? The PC was hooked up to a battery backup which regulated voltage so it couldn't have been a power spike..

They don't give you much chance in screwing up plugging in a PSU. And before turning it on I double checked everything and made sure everything was ok.

I'll be ordering a new mobo but it's just bothering me trying to figure out what went wrong in the first place!

any ideas?

 

[lozina]

maybe the morning crowd has some answers?

the old power supply was a 400 watt pc power n cooling (silencer model)

it certainly didnt need all that power, the 350 watt replacement would have been fine had the motherboard not sparked up.

The smoke seemed to come out right next to where the 20-pin ATX power supply connector is on the motherboard

Post-mortum analysis seems to indicate some of the larger capacitors on the board near the 20 pin connector have some orange rust-like residue on the top. Can't remember if that was already there before though

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

www.badcaps.net/...This link will offer some pictures of caps going bad and some interesting reading.

In the next month or so the secondary rig will get freshened up, it uses a Intel D865PERLK board that is three+years old. This board is on the list for maybe having been hit with the bad caps that were produced four years ago. It will get a close inspection with good light and magnifying glass after it is out of the case/cleaned.

I can't find it now but zdnet had an article about this type of problem. iirc,it was in the early part of this month or the latter part of October.

These things happen. You might want to mention the board type you have.


...Galvanized

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

news.zdnet.com/. Found it!

Very good read and the links within the article are worth the view.

This is not ment as FUD, just good info.

...Galvanized


EDIT:..www.motherboardrepair.com/..Another link that has EPOX on his list.

With shipping repair can be more than the cost of a new/up-graded board.

 

[lozina]

Ah, interesting info there- thanks GalvanizedYankee!

I don't recall seeing any ooze , tilting or bulging but I'll have to inspect those caps a bit better when I get home. The board is an EPoX 8KHA+ purchased around 2002, so it seems it's within the timeframe of those bad caps.

I wish I had a decent camera with a macro funtion to take good pictures

 

[Atheus]

Maybe both PSUs failed in the same way but the PCP&C handled it better and didn't blow anything else up. Could have been a short... if the board was grounded to the case right under the ATX connector there would have been a big surge through it. That would blow the caps too, as described.

 

[lozina]

Ok so on my lunch break I was able to do a closer inspection of the motherboard's capacitors now armed with the guidelines of what to look for and now it's completely obvious I've got a case of the bad caps. All the larger capacitors near the area of the 20-pin power connector and the CPU socket have some bulging at the top, and some of them have residue that came out which I originally thought was just a rust stain now appears to be that electrolytic solution.

Now I bet there was no problem with my original power supply and I'll confirm that later tonight.

Anyway, as much as I'd love to replace the capacitors in an attempt to try and repair the mobo I don't have the time nor the precision soldering skill required so I already ordered it's replacement.

Special thanks to GalvanizedYankee for providing the information to properly diagnose the problem!